Education in Dubai

Those with children will find that school fees eat up a considerable amount of income. There is no government-funded education for expat children so you must factor the cost of education into your budget.  Many employer benefits packages do include schools fees but this is often not enough to cover the amounts charged by top establishments.

Aside from fees, the other big issue facing parents is that of waiting lists.  Waiting lists for good schools are notoriously long and it’s not unusual to find children with their names down for several schools.

There are many international schools with curriculums to meet all international requirements. The British and American curriculums are most common but there are also Australian, Indian, German, French, Russian curriculums available to name but a few!   You should visit a number of schools in person to get a feel for the place before making a decision and talk to parents with children at the school to get an insider’s view.

The school day starts and finishes earlier than many will be used to with 7- 8am to 2-3pm being the norm. KG and primary school students will often have an even shorter day.

School terms are similar to those in the UK and USA with autumn (mid-September to mid-December), spring (early January to early April) and summer (mid-April to early July) terms.